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Apple accuses US government of 'smear' in iPhone case

The US government has said security levels on the iPhone are a "deliberate marketing decision" and that Apple taking the San Bernardino unlocking case public was a "diversion". Apple's legal team compared the government's case to a "smear".

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In a court filing (PDF) the Department of Justice said unlocking the iPhone 5C of Syed Farook would not put an undue strain on Apple's resources. "This burden, which is not unreasonable, is the direct result of Apple's deliberate marketing decision to engineer its products so that the government cannot search them, even with a warrant," the court filing reads.

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Apple has continued to argue that creating a new operating system to unlock the iPhone would set a "dangerous" precedent. It has also claimed the OS would effectively create a "backdoor" that could be used on other devices; damage user's privacy; and have an impact on public safety. Its position has been backed by a number of large technology companies, including Facebook, Google and Twitter.

The government's latest claim, that Apple created iPhone security so that it wouldn't have to help retrieve data when warrants were issued, has also been criticised by some in the technology industry; Denelle Dixon-Thayer, chief legal and business officer for Firefox creator Mozilla, told WIRED that the argument was "ludicrous".

This burden, which is not unreasonable, is the direct result of Apple’s deliberate marketing decision to engineer its products so that the government cannot search them, even with a warrantDepartment of Justice

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company would include security measures in a product just to make it warrant-proof. This is nonsense."

The Department of Justice filing claimed that the public debate of the issue had been a "diversion" as Apple "desperately wants [and] desperately needs" the case not to just be about one iPhone.

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It continued: "As Apple well knows, the Order does not compel it to unlock other iPhones or to give the government a universal 'master key' or 'back door.' It is a narrow, targeted order that will produce a narrow, targeted piece of software capable of running on just one iPhone, in the security of Apple’s corporate headquarters."

Apple, according to WIRED US, responded to the government's arguments by saying they amounted to "desperation".

The Silicon Valley company's chief lawyer, Bruce Sewell, told reporters on a press call, that: "In thirty years of practice I don't think I've ever seen a legal brief that was more intended to smear the other side with false accusations and innuendo and less intended to focus on the real merits of the case."